


Power Failure

by Alice_h



Series: A Place of Our Own [12]
Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: F/F, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-30
Updated: 2020-01-30
Packaged: 2021-02-27 05:08:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,667
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22481554
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alice_h/pseuds/Alice_h
Summary: A broken-down train gives Scorpia the opportunity to meet someone new, while in Bright Moon, Bow and Glimmer make a decision
Relationships: Adora/Catra (She-Ra), Bow/Glimmer (She-Ra)
Series: A Place of Our Own [12]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1511849
Comments: 40
Kudos: 24





	Power Failure

**Author's Note:**

> Do you ever have those chapters where everything feels like a chore and you can't wait to finish it so you can never think about it again? That is this one :D
> 
> This idea's been around since close to the start of the series, but I couldn't make enough of a plot around it. Apparently I still can't, so this is the result...

The shrill sound of the whistle sent Adora, Catra and Scorpia into a sprint. They’d spent the day sightseeing around Dryl – it was one of the country’s most beautiful cities, with centuries of history and the architecture to match. Unfortunately for the trio, the scenery had proven far too enticing. They had lost track of time and were now seconds away from missing their train home.

“Hurry up ladies! This door, please!” the guard called out, luckily for them having positioned himself at the end closest to the station concourse.

Catra was first in, being the fastest of the three, and she careered into the door on the other side, dropping to her knees while she tried to catch her breath. Adora followed soon after, with Scorpia arriving in seconds later, all of them collapsing on the floor whilst they recovered from their impromptu sprint. Though none of them would have considered themselves unfit, having to dash across a huge railway station heaving with people still took a lot out of them.

“Oh my God,” Scorpia wheezed, “I can’t believe… we made it.”

Once they had regained the energy to move, the three women set about finding a place to sit. The train was packed, and it wasn’t until they reached the front of 10 carriages that they located three empty seats together around a table. The fourth was occupied by a young woman with unusual lilac hair who was gazing idly out of the window, a notepad open in front of her.

"Hey, is it alright if we sit here?” Catra leant over towards her, trying her best to be polite.

The woman sprang into life, “Yes! Yes, of course! Isn’t it exciting?”

“Exciting?”

“We’re on the very first journey of the brand new 490 class trains. A total of 7000hp from the EDA 3926-A traction motors makes it the fastest third-rail EMU in the world!”

Catra was already beginning to regret choosing these seats, but was now penned in by Adora next to her, “Am I supposed to know what any of that means?”

“Oh, it’s very simp-” the woman cut herself short, delving into her pocket and bringing out a small voice recorder. She glanced at her watch, “1432, unit 413017 heading towards Dryl on five-delta-two-six.”

“Great,” Catra muttered under her breath, “Stuck here with a fucking anorak.”

“I have no idea what you just said,” Scorpia beamed a smile at the woman, “But I am _very_ interested to find out. Hi, I’m Scorpia.”

“Oh, uh, Entrapta.”

“So, Entrapta. What’s all the unit delta stuff about?”

“You want to know…?” she appeared surprised that anyone had even asked about it, “People never want to know!”

Scorpia clutched her hands together, “Well that’s going to change. Please, tell me everything!”

As the two began talking – or more accurately, Scorpia listening intently to a non-stop torrent of information – Catra flopped forward onto the table, “Great. Now there’s two of them.”

The train sped through the countryside, with a slightly grumpy Catra trying to tune out the conversation opposite her. Entrapta and Scorpia had exhausted the former’s knowledge of the railway and they’d moved on to robots or something – she wasn’t really listening. Every time another train passed, Entrapta would pick up her recorder and log it, explaining every number and code to the woman beside her. Next to Catra, Adora was idly looking at her phone, occasionally getting irritated when the signal dropped out for a moment.

They were making good time, flying through Thaymor station without stopping, but a few minutes outside the city a loud clunk underneath them temporarily stopped their activities, and they exchanged concerned glances. Half the lights in the carriage turned off, and they could feel the train begin to slow, coming to a complete halt a couple of minutes later.

“Why are we stopped?” Catra moaned, “I just want to get home.”

“Hmm,” Entrapta stared at the ceiling, “If I had to guess, I’d say a problem with the motors, maybe? Looks like we’re on emergency power.”

Scorpia gasped, “Ooh, emergency power! That’s rather thrilling.”

“No, Scorpia, it’s not,” Catra thumped the table, “Because now we’ll be late back. And that means we’ll be late picking our daughter up from school. So, no, it’s not thrilling.”

“I get it. Totally get it,” she placated the young woman opposite, before whispering to the one next to her, “It is thrilling.”

After two or three minutes of confusion, various passengers crowding around the windows to try and see if they could identify the issue, a voice came over the PA, _“Ladies and gentlemen, this is your guard speaking. There’s been a power failure in the area and we’re unable to move at this time. We’ve got some engineers on the way to sort it but currently I’m not sure how long that will be. As soon as I get any more information, I’ll let you know. On behalf of myself and South-Central Trains, we apologise for the delay to your journey this afternoon. “_

Adora took in the news, thinking hard for a few moments, “We’ll have to call Glimmer to get Amber. Could you give her a ring, Catra?”

“What? Why can’t you?”

“No service again.”

Not wanting to protest too much, she dialled the number, placing the phone on the table in front of her.

_“What do you want, Catra?”_

Adora gave her fiancée a quizzical look, noticing the frosty atmosphere between the two of them, receiving a shrug by way of response.

“Hi, Glimmer. You’re on speaker, I’ve got Scorpia and Adora with me.”

_“Oh… Uh, hi you two.”_

They both mumbled a greeting back.

“So, uh, our train has broken down and-”

“Oh, it’s not the train that’s the problem!” Entrapta interrupted, not willing to let the inaccuracy slide, “It’s the traction power that makes it run.”

_“Who’s that?_ ” Glimmer asked, more than a little confused.

“That’s Entrapta, she’s another passenger who knows far too much about trains. Just not enough to actually get us home in time.”

“Oh no! I probably could fix it if I knew exactly what the problem was. Or I could try, I mean, my speciality is more robotics than electrical engineering, but I know a thing or two. I could-”

Catra raised a hand to indicate her to be quiet, “But anyway, we’re not going to make it in time, so we wanted to ask if you could pick Amber up from school? We’ll come get her from yours if we ever make it back.”

_“Yeah, we can do that. I’ll grab Bow and we’ll leave now.”_

“Th-”

She was cut off by Adora, “Thank you Glimmer! You are the absolute _best_ friend a girl could have.”

_“Right, uh, thanks. I gotta go, bye.”_

Catra groaned loudly as she pocketed her phone again, her body slouching down in the seat, “Ugh, I hate this stupid train. This is the worst!”

“Oh, it’s not so bad,” an animated Entrapta leaned over the table towards her, “One time I was on a train that brought the entire electric wiring down.”

“Ooh,” Scorpia was intrigued, “That sounds dangerous.”

“Oh, it was. We were going quite fast, too, about a-”

“Would you shut up?!” Catra had had quite enough of listening to her incessant talking, and her slightly raised voice immediately threw the table into an uncomfortable silence.

Adora stood up, “Right, Catra and I are going to find the buffet.”

“Oh, they won’t have anything if there’s no power,” Entrapta glanced up at her, “No electricity, no hot food.”

“Yeah, just go on your own,” Catra mumbled, having long had enough of everything.

“Nope, we’re going… _together_ ,” Adora growled, wrenching her fiancée out of the seat and pulling her along the carriage like a child having a tantrum. She only released her once they were alone in the vestibule area between the carriages.

“Ow, Adora! What was that for?”

“What is _wrong_ with you Catra? You’re in a really shitty mood today,” she stared her down, “Stop being a bitch to Entrapta, she’s harmless.”

Catra was taken aback by Adora’s choice of words. She didn’t want to get into an argument, however, and made an effort to respond calmly, “I’m tired, that’s all. Also, she hasn’t stopped talking and it’s getting on my nerves. I just want her to be quiet for once.”

“Well maybe it’s not about you, Catra.”

“Huh?”

Adora stood back, gesturing through the doors into the seating area where Entrapta and Scorpia were sat laughing about something. The smile on Scorpia’s face couldn’t be ignored – it was so genuine and contented. Although she was very much ignorant about much of the stuff she was hearing, her eagerness to learn was evident in the way she was staring, rapt, at the other woman.

“Look at them, Catra.”

“What about them?” she peered through the glass. Adora’s silence allowed her to connect to dots, “Wait, no... No, you can’t be… Seriously, Adora?”

“They get on really well! And Scorpia is a wonderful person who deserves some happiness, don’t you think?”

“Yeah, but _her_? She doesn’t shut up! Although, granted, neither does Scorpia...”

Adora sported a goofy grin, “See! _Perfect_ for each other. Look, I’m not asking you to be lively and enthusiastic, but don’t keep shutting them down. Just… grease the wheels a little.”

“Grease the wheels?”

“You got it. Let’s go matchmake!” she opened the door and led Catra back to their seats, where Scorpia and Entrapta were looking through the latter’s phone.

“Well, you were right,” Catra forced a smile, playing along with Adora’s excuse for them to get away, “Nothing at all.”

“That’s a shame,” mumbled Scorpia, more interested in the contents of the phone’s screen than the lack of food, “Entrapta’s showing me pictures of the railway event things she’s been to. Did you know that some of these trains are almost a hundred years old? I didn't even know they'd been around for that long. it’s – whoa, whoa, whoa, go back. What was that?”

Entrapta swiped her phone, “Oh that? That’s just my dog, she’s called Emily.”

“PUPPY!”

“Actually, she’s five years old, so not really a puppy anymore. I guess more of a young adult in do-”

“PUPPY!”

Adora giggled, “Scorpia loves animals, Entrapta. I bet she’d love to meet Emily, wouldn’t you?”

“Oh my gosh, yes. But it’s not like I’ll get the chance.”

“Not with that attitude you won’t,” the blonde took a scrap of paper from her bag, temporarily stealing Entrapta’s pen to write on it before giving both back to her, “Here’s Scorpia’s number, you can ring her up and take the dog for a walk together.”

The lilac-haired woman took the paper from her, staring at it, then towards Scorpia, “I suppose Emily _would_ like to play with someone new...”

Catra gawped at her fiancée, barely able to fathom her brazenness, “What happened to grease the wheels, Adora? That was pretty much pushing the entire cart down a hill!”

“Hey, I saw an opportunity and I took it.”

She was unable to respond before another announcement rang through the carriage, _“Ladies and gentlemen, this is your guard. I’ve just been informed that the engineers are now on site. I’m afraid they’ve given me an estimate of three hours to fix the problem, but as soon as we have power back and we’re given the go-ahead, we’ll get you all home as fast as we can. Once again, I’m sorry for the delay to your journey today.”_

“Uggghhhh," Catra left the entire carriage in no doubt about her feelings.

* * *

Bright Moon Manor had been blanketed by night hours before Adora’s car finally crawled up the driveway. Their nightmare journey home had taken them almost six hours, and having to drive out to Bright Moon meant they’d still not been home. Without power, the atmosphere on the train had become stuffy and warm, which only fed Catra’s grumpiness – she’d ended up finding a seat on her own at the other end for the last hour in order to get away from the other three’s conversation.

Adora had her car door open before they’d even stopped, leaving her keys in the ignition as she ran up the steps and rang the bell.

“Oh my God, Glimmer I am so sorry. We were stuck on that train for four hours – I swear I had no idea it would take that long,” she launched into a panicked tirade the moment the door opened.

Glimmer laughed to herself, “Please, it’s fine. She’s been so well-behaved, really polite and an absolute joy.”

“Crap, Adora, they picked up the wrong kid,” judging by the disapproving frowns she received, Catra’s humour didn’t land.

“Anyway, she’s upstairs. Bow’s putting her to bed because we didn’t know how long you’d be.”

“You are amazing, Glim. I’ll run up and get her,” Adora gave her an awkward momentary hug, then disappeared up the stairs leaving the two women alone.

“Glimmer.”

“Catra.”

“Thanks for looking after Amber today.”

“Not a problem, she’s a wonderful child.”

“Thanks.”

There were uncomfortable silences, and then there were moments like this. Both barely acknowledged each other, Glimmer needlessly leafing through a phone book that was near the door and Catra choosing to inspect the frame of a painting that hung on the wall. They each had long speeches of things they would have liked to say to the other, but forced themselves mute, waiting for the other to give in.

“I haven’t said anything to Bow,” it was Glimmer who ceded first.

“Good! Because there’s nothing to say. Just get over it and move on.”

“How can you be like that? Don’t you feel the slightest bit of guilt?”

Catra shot across the room, using her body to make a fearful Glimmer back up against the wall and looming over her, “Of course I fucking feel guilty. But I am _not_ going to let it ruin things with Adora, and if you know what’s good for you, you’ll keep your mouth shut too. Get on with your life.”

“Everything alright in here?” they both wrenched their attention sheepishly towards Adora, who was following Bow down the stairs, a sleepy Amber flopped over her shoulder, “What’s going on?”

“No, nothing!” Catra chuckled nervously, “I was just showing Glimmer what that Entrapta person was like – no sense of personal space, right Glim?”

“Uh, yeah…”

Adora used her free hand to pull her fiancée back, “Leave her be, Catra, Entrapta’s a lovely girl. And talking of lovely girls, we’d best get this snooze-bundle home.”

Bow’s face was a picture of contentment, “Bring her back any time! Look at you all, such a perfect family…”

They waved each other goodbye, and watched the couple strap their daughter into the car, then slowly drive away. With Amber on the way home, Bow and Glimmer returned to the living room and cuddled up together.

“We did pretty good today.”

“Yeah, we did,” he leaned against her, eyes closed to better enjoy the peace, “You know… it does make me think we’d be great parents ourselves if we had one of our own.”

Glimmer drew away, slightly surprised, “You want to have a kid? I don’t know how we’d even do that though.”

“I’ve been doing a little research. But before I go any further, you want one too, right?”

“Yeah, yeah I do,” she sounded a little hesitant. While Glimmer definitely _did_ want children, the guilt of what happened with Catra made her think twice. But a surge of determination hit back – Catra was a mistake, it was behind them, and it shouldn’t stop her from moving her own life forward.

“Awesome. So I’ve been looking up places that can help us, and there’s one in town that we could go and look at. If you want, of course.”

A genuine smile spread across her face as she allowed herself to let go of her remorse, “As long as we’re doing it together, I can’t wait.”

**Author's Note:**

> Next one should be a lot better, and the one after that is a Big Thing, so do hang around for that.
> 
> In the next part: Glimmer has a run-in with some cold plastic and Bow keeps his hands clean.


End file.
